Cape town: Africa stands at the centre of the global energy transition at a time when the global order faces evolution and recalibration. This is according to Electricity and Energy Minister, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, who addressed the Africa Energy Indaba, which kicked off at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Tuesday.
According to South African Government News Agency, the Minister highlighted that the gathering comes at a ‘moment of profound historical consequence’ with rising geopolitical tensions, intensifying conflicts around the world, and a global energy transition underway. Dr. Ramokgopa emphasized that the global order, as known for decades, is not merely evolving but being recalibrated in real time. The energy system that fueled successive industrial revolutions is undergoing structural transformation, with supply chains reorganized under strategic rivalry pressures. Industrial policy has returned as a central instrument of statecraft, as major economies deploy unprecedented subsidy regimes to secure supply chains, protect domestic manufacturing, and reposition themselves within emerging clean technology value chains.
Africa, with its critical minerals, stands as a key actor in the global transition. Dr. Ramokgopa noted that energy now sits at the epicentre of this global reordering, becoming the silent architecture of global power. In this reconfigured world, Africa is not a peripheral actor but a structural anchor in the global transition. The minister stated that without African platinum group metals, the hydrogen economy cannot achieve scale, and without African cobalt, manganese, and copper, the battery revolution falters. He added that the transition to net zero is materially dependent on Africa.
Ramokgopa warned that history urges vigilance even as the new structural reality places the continent at the centre of one of the most consequential economic transformations of our time. He emphasized that structural centrality does not automatically yield structural prosperity. For generations, Africa supplied raw materials for industrial revolutions elsewhere, while value addition remained beyond its shores. The minister stressed the importance of ensuring that the global transition does not replicate historical asymmetries under a new technological banner.
The minister further noted that while Africa’s mineral wealth places it at the centre of the global transition, minerals alone will not guarantee transformation. Beneficiation is crucial, requiring system design. He pointed out the necessity of reliable electricity systems for industrial transformation and the development of manufacturing capacity in transformers, conductors, cables, renewable components, and storage systems.
Dr. Ramokgopa called for investment in local engineering capabilities, technical training institutions, and research partnerships to embed technological competence within Africa’s economies. He highlighted energy infrastructure development as key, describing it as industrial policy in action. Each piece of infrastructure built should reinforce domestic capacity, skills transfer, and enterprise development.
He concluded by rallying for Africa to move from rhetoric to reality, urging the Indaba to serve as a platform where ambition is translated into execution. The minister envisioned Africa emerging not only as a supplier of materials but as a producer of clean technologies and a centre of green industrialisation, defining its own developmental trajectory. – SAnews.gov.za